Abstract
This article is based on my wondering about the observation that only very few 1990s male pop singers apart from Michael Jackson sound angry. This led to a search for answers in both a historical and a music-analytical direction. Historically, by pointing to expressions of anger by earlier African-American singers and to W.E.B. DuBois’ concept of double consciousness which posits anger as something you need to hide. Analytically, by getting an idea of “musical anger” in more recent popular music and by pointing to some of the vocal aspects that expresses anger. A raspy quality is one of the basic vocal qualities that Jackson uses in expressing anger, but a lot of other aspects weigh in as well (e.g., articulation and volume). Furthermore, Jackson seems to transcend the double consciousness by expressing what is supposed to be hidden.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Book series | Danish Musicology Online |
| Issue number | særnummer |
| Pages (from-to) | 101-111 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities
- Michael Jackson
- voice analysis
- angry voice
- double consciousness